Gillian Armstrong Quotations

After Sept. 11, there was a reticence and worrying about films that touched on war, and even more on terrorism.

Australia has produced amazing costume designers that are unheralded.

Boys are lacking in female skills, dropping out of schools and ending up in jails and unemployed because they lack these skills.

Critics often say, 'Oh she makes films about strong women'. Wrong; I make films about complex characters and the choices they make.

Frankly, I get sick of being considered a 'young woman filmmaker' rather than an individual artist, as a man would be.

Hollywood is a very old and very structured situation. There's still a lot of old boys at the top who have the money.

I don't consciously go out looking for themes. They attach themselves to me.

I have major credibility as a hip, out-there documentary filmmaker, and I'm not going to say, 'I'm only a drama filmmaker' anymore.

I have worked with some of the most amazing costume designers in the world.

I put on 'Starstruck' for my kids, and they started getting bored. I was so upset, I took it off. They preferred 'Home Alone.'

It often takes a couple of years to get a script right and then takes a couple of years to get financing together.

It only happens once - that an actor is suddenly recognised as the star they are.

It's really actually been pretty shoddy and appalling, the amount of local content, Australian drama, on ABC TV.

Maybe not many women are going to film school.

Maybe women should leave time for themselves and their relationships and just have some fun.

Sure, you always put some of your own experience into a film.

The question I always ask is: 'Where are all the women directors in America?' You know, where's the female Martin Scorsese, the female David Lynch?

We need more drama on Australian TV. We've actually dropped the ball on that.

When I was 18 years old, I had never before seen Australian film on the big screen.

You rarely, in the professional world, have the chance to express yourself as an individual.

When I was a young filmmaker starting out, I was really snobby about all the affirmative action for women filmmakers because I felt it should be about your talent, and I made a film that won awards, and people wanted me.

'Little Women' has interesting gender connotations. There are generations of women who love the book. But there are a lot of men who think it's sentimental, gooey stuff.

I was a young film student around the time of the new wave in film in the 1970s; old Hollywood was naff and over. For me, as a film student, I was going to see French and Italian cinema; American cinema was 'Easy Rider' and 'Taxi Driver.' Everything was gritty.

There are really only a handful of directors who have a final cut clause in Hollywood. You only get that power if you've made a couple of hundred-million-dollar successes.

Australia is much more liberal in accepting de facto relationships than the U.S.

Cable television stations in America are now producing such smart, in-depth, non-formula, character-based dramas. Film has turned more and more into big action or cartoons.

I do think the moral line you walk all the time about putting something in for the sake of the film and not being affected by people's lives is a very tough one.